Wednesday, October 04, 2006

A Day of Labs

We wrapped up our day of labs [pre-conference lectures] and I thought I would share a highlight from each of my three sessions:

Session 1: Margaret FeinbergShe talked about innovation and said that it flowed from a combination of a personal passion and God given calling.

Session 2: Craig GroeschelHe shared one of the best messages on vision that I have every heard. He used Paul's story from Acts 20:22-24.

He told a story about how early in his ministry he took a thriving singles ministry that was running 150 and "ran it down" to four people [one being his wife]. He shared how at the end he stood broken before the group and wept, but one of the women came to him and said, "You don't need to take credit for the decrease because then you won't be tempted to one day take credit for the increase." Saying that he now leads a church of thousands, that was a very needed and prophetic statement. He admitted, "I needed to hear that!"

Session 3: Tim ElmoreThis was a great session on creating a culture where leaders are born. I liked this guy and wished we had more time together. He was a great communicator and was skilled in the world of leadership training.

He talked about what he labeled "The Joshua Problem". He said that Moses did a great job of pouring into and mentoring Joshua to be the next generation leader but when the baton was passed to Joshua he never found someone to mentor. How sad it is that many of us leaders find ourselves facing the same problem. We're not intentionally training tomorrow's leaders.